Artists Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby travel the country finding art in their surroundings before being unexpectedly forced to consider what it would mean to lose the ability to see.
Abu Kiffan is the name of a reef near Safaga in Egypt. In the film we are drowned in sound, time slows down and we are given a closer look at what’s going on. Part two of Holthuis’ series Careless Reef, four films about the world under water.
Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
Colour, form, area - this is the formula of the greatest pioneer of abstract painting. Kandinsky came to art late in life, but his impact through Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) and Bauhaus paved the way for modern art. In 1913, he created one of the first abstract pictures, the theoretical basis of which was inspired by his essay Uber das Geistige in der Kunst (On the Spiritual in Art). Accompanied by Mussorgsky's Pictures From An Exhibition Labarthe goes on a sensual journey which makes the soul resound with colours and forms. "A picture has to resound and must be bathed in an inner glow." Kandinsky
This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.
The multi-talented outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts–in miniature.
The Kabul National Museum, once known as the "face of Afghanistan," was destroyed in 1993. We filmed the most important cultural treasures of the still-intact museum in 1988: ancient Greco-Roman art and antiquitied of Hellenistic civilization, as well as Buddhist sculpture that was said to have mythology--the art of Gandhara, Bamiyan, and Shotorak among them. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, some seventy percent of the contents of the museum was destroyed, stolen, or smuggled overseas to Japan and other countries. The movement to return these items is also touched upon. The footage in this video represents that only film documentation of the Kabul Museum ever made.
A passionate photographer from an early age, Dolorès Marat spent much of her life in photo labs, developing shots for fashion magazines. In the early 1990s, at the dawn of her forties, she decided to devote herself to her personal work. Today, she is exhibited worldwide. With her Leica camera in hand, Dolorès Marat takes an intimate look at her surroudings. She shots on the spot, as the blue hour settles. In her photographs, a dream-like strangeness overlaps the triviality of everyday life. Director Armelle Sèvre, also a photographer, wanted to see the world through Dolorès’ eyes. Together, the two women will scour the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in search of a wave… Carried along by a bewitching soundtrack, this film dives in the enigmatic, hazy and colorful universe of a singular artist.
This is a 1991 documentary film about the legendary artist and filmmaker, Joseph Cornell, who made those magnificent and strange collage boxes. He was also one of our great experimental filmmakers and once apparently made Salvador Dali extremely jealous at a screening of his masterpiece, Rose Hobart. In this film we get to hear people like Susan Sontag, Stan Brakhage, and Tony Curtis talk about their friendships with the artist. It turns out that Curtis was quite a collector and he seemed to have a very deep understanding of what Cornell was doing in his work.
New York based artist, Cindy Sherman, is famous for her photographs of women in which she is not only the photographer, but also the subject. She has contributed her own footage to the programme by recording her studio and herself at work with her Hi-8 video camera. It reveals a range of unexpected sources from visceral horror to medical catalogues and exploitation movies, and explores her real interests and enthusiasms. She shows an intuitive and often humorous approach to her work, and reflects on the themes of her work since the late 1970s. She talks about her pivotal series known as the `Sex Pictures' in which she addresses the theme of sexuality in the light of AIDS and the arts censorship debate in the United States.
Narrated by Uncle Jack Charles and seen through the eyes of Indigenous prisoners at Victoria’s Fulham Correctional Centre, this documentary explores how art and culture can empower Australia's First Nations people to transcend their unjust cycles of imprisonment.
The rise and fall of ANSI art in the 1980s and early 90s. ANSI graphics were made from small rectangles. There were 256 rectangles to choose from - 4 density patterns and 16 colors per pattern.
A commune of improvisational theatre performers, musicians, light-show artists, film makers, geodesic dome designers and former members of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters takes shape on a mountaintop in southern California, where they have free rent in return for caring for forty hogs. In the summer of 1968 they take off in a caravan of 40 busses to bring the Yippie party presidential candidate, Pigasus the Pig, to Chicago. Along the way they put on free participatory carnivals for thousands in rodeo grounds, indian reservations, and colleges all across the country.
A documentary about the life and works of the artist M. C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.
All The Eyes is the story of the lives of children whose geographical determinism has created obstacles for them to achieve their dreams. Children who live in one of the most deprived areas of Iran: Kotij, a city of 6,000 people in Balochistan.
From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Soho to Greenwich, Union Square to Wall Street... Join us and the friends, collaborators and gallery owners who supported Jean-Michel Basquiat throughout his life. The first ever recognized graffiti artist, who saw international success as a neo-expressionist painter in the 80s, Basquiat is a true contemporary hero who died at the peak of his career.
Since its opening in 1948, The Farnsworth Art Museum has been a source of community pride and a beacon that draws visitors to Rockland each year. Told through first person interviews with Rockland natives and residents, historical photographs and footage, the film follows the museum’s growth from the reading of Lucy Farnsworth’s will, through the construction of the museum facility, to the internationally renowned institution that it is today.
A journey into the hearts, minds and eyes of Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo - three of the 20th century’s most remarkable artists.
Lebanese director Angie Obeid embarks on a road trip with her father, Mansour, retracing a journey he made 42 years ago. She tries to reach out to the young Mansour, understand the decisions he made when he was her age, and find common ground. The film explores the challenges and opportunities that arise when navigating the boundaries between tradition and modernity, family and individuality, home and the wider world.
A portrait of the day-to-day operations of the National Gallery of London, that reveals the role of the employees and the experiences of the Gallery's visitors. The film portrays the role of the curators and conservators; the education, scientific, and conservation departments; and the audience of all kinds of people who come to experience it.
Filmed over three years, the documentary is an unprecedented record of a major artist at work. It captures David Hockney's return to England after 25 years in California. As he approaches the age of 70, he decides to re-invent his painting from scratch, working through the seasons and in all weathers out in the Yorkshire countryside - ending up with the largest picture ever made outdoors. It is at once the story of a homecoming and an intimate portrait of what inspires and motivates today's greatest living British-born artist as time runs out. Winner of Best Essay award at the International Festival for Films on Art in Montreal and nominated Best Arts Documentary by the Grierson and International Emmy Awards. Premiered on BBC1, the documentary appears in a special extended 60' version.